A kidnapper who snatched a girl 18 years ago and fathered two children with her today spoke from his prison cell.

Convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, aged 58, is being held after Jaycee Lee Dugard – now 29 – walked into a California police station.

She was abducted by two people in a car from a bus stop outside her home in 1991. Police said she had apparently been kept in a camouflaged shed in the backyard of Garrido’s house where her children, now aged 11 and 15, were born and brought up.

Click here to hear the full interview.

Garrido’s wife Nancy, aged 54, has also been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and other offences.

Police said Jaycee was today reunited with her family amid ‘emotional’ scenes.

In an interview from the El Dorado County jail, Garrido said: “Wait until you hear the story of what took place at this house. You are going to be completely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning.

“But I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there.”

Garrido did not deny the kidnap but claimed that he had left important documents that would reveal key information about the case with an agent at the FBI office in San Francisco.

He said: “You’re going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim – you wait. If you take this a step at a time, you’re going to fall over backwards and in the end, you’re going to find the most powerful heart-warming story.”

A police spokesman said the compound where the family was imprisoned was a “series of sheds with electricity and a rudimentary shower”.

He added: “There was “a hidden backyard with sheds, tents and outbuildings where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives.

“There was a vehicle hidden in the backyard that matched the vehicle originally described at the time of the abduction.

“The tents and outbuildings were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and isolate the victims.”

He said one shed was soundproofed and could only be opened from the outside, while another had access to the backyard.

Jaycee’s stepfather Carl Probyn, 60, who had been a suspect in the case, said he was struggling to understand why Jaycee didn’t come forward earlier. He added: “I have a million questions, but I’m just delighted.”